AppClass: Trying Tellagami

In the previous week, in my Appclass , we have used Tellagami app. It’s a free, fun and a neat app that can be used with elementary level students. It lets you create and design your own avatar, add a background image and record your voice. When you finish, your 30 second video is ready to share. You can share your videos via email or get a link, share it on Facebook or Twitter.

At the beginning of the lesson, I talked about what I expected the kids to do and explained the app. I didn’t want the kids to use their apps immediately and record their voices spontaneously; so first of all, I asked the kids to write ten things about themselves; e.g.their names, likes and dislikes, where they live etc. on their worksheets. When they finished, I asked them to work on their apps and create their avatars and record their voices. When they are done, they have shared their Tellagami’s via link and also posted them on our Edmodo page.

What worked?

The app is very easy to use so you don’t need to explain it to the kids in detail. They like discovering the apps themselves. They pick up how the app works easily.

It is great that you can save your video in your picture gallery and access it later.

Suggestions for a better lesson:

As they have to record their voices using the app, they wanted to find a quiet place which was difficult to find!!!

It took a very long time for some of the kids to write 10 things about themselves. As they are EFL students, they had some tiny mistakes as well so some of them couldn’t complete the task.

I had some wifi issues, so some of them couldn’t share their Tellagami videos but they posted their video links later on Edmodo.

As a post activity, I asked the kids to write their reflections on Evernote.

Here is one of the Tellagami videos:

Overall, I and the students like this app! But still, we need time to create the culture of BYOT process and mLearning.

Özge Karaoğlu is an English teacher and educational consultant in teaching young learners and teaching with web-based technologies. She is the author of Minigon ELT book series, which aims to teach English to young learners through stories. Read more of her ideas about teaching English through technology and Web-based tools at ozgekaraoglu.edublogs.org.